Steroid Testimony: Questioning by Congressman Mark Souder

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Mr. SOUDER. My first question is to Mr. Schilling. And my belief
is that all we have seen is sampling, and it is not adequate, and
it is not independent, and so full of holes and ephedra and everything
else, that if it was cheese, it would definitely be Swiss cheese.
Clearly the policy needs to be fixed, and I’m disappointed that you
don’t seem to share that view.

You said earlier, as I understood it, that we went from 5 to 7 percent
positive down to 1.7, and that is progress. I thought I heard
you also say it would be inevitable, and the people—this would be
public. I haven’t heard 5 to 7 percent of the players named as using
steroids. I haven’t heard 1.7 percent. Where is the public part?

Mr. SCHILLING. After the agreement renegotiated those past couple
of months, those are instituted now. Those previous results are
from the last two seasons. The 5 to 7 percent was the number that
needed to be met for the testing to be put into effect, the different
method of testing which was put into effect last year.

Mr. SOUDER. Under the previous policy, was anybody suspended
for steroids?

Mr. SCHILLING. I can’t answer that.

Mr. SOUDER. The simple way to solve this is the way that Mr.
Sosa and Mr. Palmeiro and Mr. Schilling and Mr. Thomas has said.
I’m clean, I have been clean, I’ve taken the test, and I have passed
the test. This is pretty simple, and the American people are figuring
out who is willing to say that and who isn’t.

And as far as this being about the past, that’s what we do. This
is an oversight committee. If the Enron people come in here and
say, we don’t want to talk about the past, do you think Congress
is going to let them get away with that? When we were doing investigations
on the travel office, on Whitewater, if President Nixon
had said about Watergate when Congress was investigating Watergate,
we don’t talk about the past, how in the world are we supposed
to pass legislation? When you are a protected monopoly, and
all of your salaries are paid because you are a protected monopoly,
how are we supposed to figure out what our obligations are to the
taxpayers if you say you won’t want to talk about the past?

I praise those people that have come forward and have been in
awkward situations before because of peer pressure and said, look,
I’m clean; but I’m really disappointed because we have to talk
about the past because there isn’t any way to address that. And
unless there are independent entities doing this, I don’t believe this
is going to pass the laugh test. I believe we have advanced some
today, but we have also gone backward some today. And this is
going to be very critical.